On Monday evening, as part of the show's continued emphasis on "Guns in America", "Piers Morgan Tonight" invited Sheriff Joe Arpaio to share his plan for further arming citizens in Arizona:

"I'm taking immediate action. I have a volunteer posse made up of 3,500 armed, well-trained - 100 hours of training. We just finished another program at the malls. Very successful," explained the Maricopa County sheriff. "So why not utilize and mobilize a posse, which a sheriff can do, in the perimeters? I don't believe in putting the posse in the schools, but protect the kids and teachers by outside patrol, visible deterrents and keep these bad guys out of the schools."

As Morgan listed various mass-shootings such as those that took place in Columbine, Colo. and on the campus at Virginia Tech – he explained that those locations boasted armed guards.

Arpaio though, maintained the thinking behind his approach:

"You never can say everything is perfect. But you sure can take action, try to deter any operation. Don't surrender. Don't just talk about it, that every politician seems to be doing. Get something done, so that's what I'm doing."

Providing a contrary view, last night Piers Morgan welcomed Dave Hoover, the uncle of an Aurora shooting victim who's calling for stricter gun control in the wake of such tragic events:

"This country needs to realize, that we need to make sure, that these guns are not in the hands of those who shouldn't have them," said Hoover, whose nephew AJ Boik was killed in the July Colorado theater shooting. "An AR-15, or an M-16 – same weapon, just a different designation – needs to be in the hands of the military, or police only."

soundoff(17 Responses)

I agree with you 100 % !
100 hours of training in elderly people or even younger folks with no Law Enforcement training in stressful situations . Spells Disaster at least at its best !
At least ex-police , retired police or ex Military Police who have been thru some stressful situations in firearms !
Amen .....

100 hours of training and join a posse? Every gun nut in town is going to jump on this one. Not a good idea. I grew up in Arizona and I remember being able to walk down the street at 14 with a 357 on my hip going to the desert for some shooting practice. It is still the wild west.

Piers, we love you for what you're doing. You have guts and you know what's right. Keep up the good work, Piers. It's so scary, living in a country with nuts such as Alex Jones, isn't it? This is not the America I grew up in. This country has gone mad. Piers, we need you to keep the momentum going to do something about gun control. Thank you.

I think about the country I grew up in and that wasn't very long ago. I remember going to high school and we all had guns in the back window of our pickups. Never heard of a school shooting either. What happened?

The country you grew up in? Piers Morgan does photo ops with Obama, the same man who orders drone strikes in Pakistan which routinely kill families and innocent children. I'm talking over 200! But you are scared of Alex Jones!? A man who hasn't killed anyone, a man who is simply reminding us that governments kill and people should be armed to protect themselves? I'm sorry but your priorities are screwed up BIG time.

Wrong Gunnar. Alex Jones creates fear and is doing the same type of radical talk that created Timothy McVeigh. He may very well be responsible for killing someone one of these days even if he doesn't pull the trigger. We are both supporters of the second amendment, yet we are not screaming for automatic weapons or the ability to own a shotgun with a barrel length of 16”? I’m not even sure why we have a barrel length law on shotguns, but isn’t that gun control? No post I have made suggested taking any gun off the market. I only have stated that accessories that enhance the gun beyond a defensive weapon need to be restricted and controlled in the same way we control automatic weapons or silencers. By the way, I have friends that legally own both. Follow me with this train of thought. If there was a federal law that made it a felony to have in your possession a high capacity magazine, do you thing Adam Lanza would have had access to one?

In 1968 a man was killed five (5) doors down from the police stattion the day a law was passed that one could not transport a firearm through Denve County; All due the the kidnapping and killing of Adolph Coors' son. He was found months later Which sent CONGRESS into a frenzy for tighter Firearm laws. So the Senate got busy and adoptted more frearm regulations; even though the ones in effect did nothing to stop the events that occurred. To this day they have not curbed such events as these.

Piers Morgan shold be exported back to his own country. He no citzenship here legally or otherwise; he can go home and mind his own business; because he sure knows nothing baout our country, and has no respect for our laws, he doesn't even begin to believe in them. Another one that was raised with the SILVER psoon in his mouth. Plus he is looking for a fight that he knows nothing about. Hmmmmmm maybe he was one of those rich kids sent off else where to grow up, because his mummy and daddy couldn't handle him....Hmmmmmm

It is a tragic fact that guns are far more likely to be used in suicide than homicide. Their easy availablity in the family home has caused the deaths of over 10,000 mostly young men every year. In fact guns are hardly every used in self defence, only 0.001% of incidents are recorded by the FBI. Another point is that more folk have been killed buy guns at home than in all the military interventions in US history. A further point to consider is the the USA is ranked 88th in the global peace index next to China ranked 89th. It is the lowest ranked of all developed countries. If the objective of ensuring security is behind the second amendment it would seem questionable that it is working well for the good people of the USA. It is a pity that there is more emotion than rationality used in this debate.

That is one of the best points I have heard. It is true that having a weapon in the home is very dangerous and in many cases proves to be the very thing that causes injury to the homeowner. Something that many gun owners seems to forget. Failure to respect the dangers of the weapon can be a fatal mistake. It takes very little effort to pull that little trigger, and once pulled, what is going to happen is going to happen. You can’t take it back.

Everyone is talking about banning guns, making it difficult to get them, control of them, etc. NONE of them are talking about preventing the users of them in criminal acts. CRIMINALS will ALWAYS be able to obtain a gun, from a Saturday Night Special to a M-60. Chicago has the hardest anti gun laws in the US, and the highest gun violence rate, mostly black vs black.

Australia had everyone turn in their guns, violent crime soared.

England has anti gun laws, police are now carrying guns because the CRIMINALS are becoming better armed than they are.

In England there was a famous case of a farmer who was sentenced to prison for five years for shooting a thug who broke into his house. What the BBC didn't tell the public was it had been broken into it some 30 times prior by this same thug.

So now guns are band but Knife crime is sky rocked in England, And now carrying pocket knifes are band as well and as you would suspect, Screwdrivers, Bats and Rocks being used in crimes are on the rise in England (see also Northern Ireland) I'm sorry to say, all you dear liberals, but until we all become Christians and "Love are neighbours", crime will not stop unless you can defend your family.
To protect against an offence, is to have a good defence.

Problem with the total ban of guns is the loss of an equalizer. That means the big buy beats the crap out of the little guy. Getting beat to death with a baseball bat doesn’t sounds all so good. Women are at a disadvantage in a community without guns.

An interview today CNN stated that there were armed personnel at the Ft. Hood shooting and it did not stop anything. Get your facts correct CNN, Army personnel are not allowed to carry weapons on post unless on a range or law enforcement. Know your facts before you report. I think the posse idea is a good thing. It lets the crazy people perpetrating these crime know that the risk is greater that they will not succeed. Had those soldiers been armed at Ft. Hood, I would bet my home that little if any would have been lost and this worthless individual would not be eating our food and suing the govt. because he can't grow a beard!

Jacky you are right. The debate seems to be centred arround self defence. This is an intractable argument, The evidence that bearing arms keeps America safer is very difficult to prove. But for sure the easy availability of lethal weapons in the home undoubtedly increases the risk of them being misused, sadly with irreversable consequences. There are facts about suicide and they do not provide confortable reading for anybody. Only the extremely complacent would argue that guns in the home make it a less dangerous place.
Perhaps the media ought to go into a home that has been devastated by the suicide of a young man, who perhaps took his life because of low grades, argument with his girlfriend or pernicious gossip on facebook.

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